Reaper

I ran through the forest as fast as my bare feet could carry me and tried not to think about the burning pain slowly crawling up my leg. Every step I took brought horrible pain that squeezed my broken ribs, but that didn’t matter because every step I took brought me that much closer to refuge. It was eerily quiet in the forest in the dead of night, my feet and the first light snow of the season caressing the icy ground making the only sounds.

My breathing took on a raspy tone as I carelessly made my way through the bare trees, not that it mattered, they could find me even if I were buried under the ice bearing ground. The sharp tips of naked branches clawed at my bare skin, carving shallow scratches into my arms. No longer able to carry my beaten body any farther, I stopped at the only tree still bearing dried, browning leaves and slid to the ground. I slumped against the trunk of the tree and ignored the burning cold that slipped into the pores on my body.

I tried taking a deep breath and almost screamed out in agony as my broken ribs punctured my lung and made breathing close to impossible. But, the searing pain in my lower left calf overcame even the extreme agony of my punctured lung as the venom of the nasty bite made its way farther into my ravaged body. The night was so dark that I couldn’t see the bite that they gave me, but I gingerly probed the wound and felt hot puss slowly leaking from the swollen bite.

I thumped my head hopelessly against the bark of the tree and prayed that they would just go away. After a few minutes of silence my heart finally slowed to a lethargic jog and the only sounds filling the night was the falling snow and my ragged breathing. The pain in my ribs slightly subsided as the cold chilled my bones and wrapped my body in a cocoon of ice and only the burning of the venom kept my dried, crusted eyes from closing.

Suddenly, a high pitched screech interrupted the silent night and pierced my ears, drilling holes in my skull. My body was sent into hyper drive as I shot into a standing position and the icy cocoon fell off my body like a blanket and brought the pain in my body to a new level. I sprinted off deeper into the woods and was brought to a stop by the unbelievable agony in my leg and lungs.

That’s when they appeared in front of me cloaked in a cloud of pitch black smog, darker than even the night around me. At least thirty clumps of black smoke surrounded me and I slid to the ground, at the mercy of their power. The smoke slowly dissipated and I caught sight of the terrible creatures that had escaped the darkest trenches of hell. They had followed me for weeks, lurking just outside my door waiting for the right moment to strike.

Now here I was, faced with thirty of the dankest, most evil monsters of the night. They stood over seven feet tall, with boney bodies covered in decaying, sagging, leather like skin. No hair or facial features besides a gaping hole in the middle of their heads where a face should have been that sucked the soul out of their victims, slowly and painfully draining the life out of your body. The leader of the legion from hell stepped out of the shadows and stood a foot in front of me and opened its gaping hole and poured putrid breath onto my body that brought me down to my knees.

Having me right where they wanted, the reaper pointed at my pussy bite with a five inch nail and let out a deep, raspy moan of approval. Without a moments hesitation, the reaper came closer to me until all that was in my sight was the pure darkness of the gaping hole. My heart pounded and rattled painfully against my shattered ribs as I gazed into its endless tunnel of darkness. The creature slid its mouth over my heart and began sucking out my soul and I screamed out in agony as the worst imaginable pain wracked my body as my soul was literally torn from me.

I fell backwards, no longer able to keep myself upright, and my eyes became heavy as the grim reaper continued to drain my life and the realization hit that I had failed to protect the earth from the things that went bump in the night. And the last thing I saw before I was finally graced with sweet death and an end to my pain, were the stars that came streaking down from the sky and barreling to the earth at lightening speed, signifying the end of the human race and the beginning of the reign of the reapers.

Subscribe

Get Teen Ink’s 48-page monthly print edition. Written by teens since 1989.